OUSA

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Food For Thought: Day 7

I slept in really late today, on account of being out late last night following the conclusion of our meeting.  We have just elected a great bunch of individuals for our USC Executive Team next year, and we would have been a little remiss if we hadn’t done some celebrating.  Since I didn’t end up crawling out of bed until around noon, I never really ate a breakfast, per se, but rather just lunch and dinner.  That’s one way to keep costs down!

Today also marks the end of the first seven days, so I guess it’s time to do a budget check.  My total expenditure to date is $45.82 plus the $3.50 I’m adding on for things I already had on hand which I’m using (based on what I priced them out as in the grocery store), which makes $49.32.  This is great, since I had been hoping to keep things under budget so that I’d have some flex room in case I get caught on campus later than expected one day, or forget to bring a lunch or something like that.

Today also marks the second shopping trip I’ve made for the campaign, so we’ll do a quick update on what was left from the first trip, and then go over what I had the chance to get this time.  I still had the following left: a bit of milk; some salad; some carrots; a box of Kraft Dinner; about half the jar of bread and butter pickles; most of the salad dressing; some peanut butter; some Becel; some pasta (about half the bag) and a can of pasta sauce, as well as a can of orange juice.

I had the chance to pick up a whole bunch of food at the grocery store since some savvy shopping led me straight to some fantastic deals.  I picked up: four packages of Mr. Noodles soup; two boxes of Kraft Dinner; a litre of milk; some ham for sandwiches; some chicken bacon; a frozen pizza; a small bag of baby carrots; a half dozen of both bananas and apples; a bag of salad; some raisin bread; and a loaf of regular bread.  I also had the chance to pick up a few “luxury items” to add to the food like sandwiches I’ve already been making; two tomatoes and a squeeze bottle of mustard.  I decided to splurge a little, and also picked up a 2L bottle of rootbeer and a bag of chips.  Total cost for today’s trip was $45.34, and I’m expecting this, in combination with what was left from last week, to carry me through until this time next weekend.  Let’s just hope I learned my lesson from last week and don’t run out of some of this stuff before I go shopping again!

Andrew

Meal Breakdown:

Lunch: a banana, leftover Kraft Dinner and a glass of milk.

Dinner: soup, a glass of milk, and some carrots.

Late Night Snack: a glass of orange juice, two pieces of bacon, and a piece of raisin bread.

Estimate on Food Guide Servings:

Vegetables and Fruit: 3-4

Grains: 5-6

Milk and Alternatives: 2

Meat and Alternatives: 1

London Free Press News Article

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Food For Thought: Day 6

So, today was a very long day, but it was also a really good one.  I got up around 8:00 (yes, on a Saturday; ridiculous, I know) to be on campus for my meeting at 9:00 (also ridiculous, I am aware).  I grabbed a quick breakfast of milk, a banana, and some toast, and headed off for my day of meetings.

What made today great was that I had both lunch and dinner for free, as a result of the fat that we had a day-long council meeting.  We went from 9am until around 6pm or so, which meant that both lunch and dinner were included; and they were both amazing.  Today was when I really realized how uncharacteristic a sample I am, between the free food I got this weekend and the fasting I do on Fridays.  It’s a lot easier to survive on limited funds when stuff is free!

I hadn’t realized how much I was missing really good, high-quality food until I had the chance to enjoy it this weekend.  Lunch was just sandwiches, and dinner was just pasta with bread sticks and salad (so both were basically what I’d been eating all along), but they were just so much better since they had a whole bunch of extra ingredients at their disposal.  $7.50 a day doesn’t leave much money to buy spices and dressings, so a lot of what I’ve been eating to date has all been the same.  Maybe that can be today’s Foor For Thought.

Andrew

Meal Breakdown:

Breakfast: a glass of milk, a banana, and a piece of toast.

Lunch: two and a half delicious sandwiches.

Dinner: a giant pile of fettucine alfredo, a breadstick, and some salad.

Estimate on Food Guide Servings:

Vegetables and Fruit: 4

Grains: 8-9

Milk and Alternatives: 1

Meat and Alternatives: 2-3

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Food For Thought: Day 5

Fridays are going to be a funny experience during this campaign, because I typically fast until sun-down during Lent as part of my observance.  It sure is easy to eat on $7.50 a day when you skip two meals!

I started off the morning with a liquid breakfast – a glass of orange juice and a glass of milk, and then headed off to campus.  About ten hungy, grueling hours later I made my way back home and cooked up some dinner.  It’s amazing how much you can eat when it’s been about twenty-four hours since your last meal.  A big dinner of carrots, Kraft Dinner, salad, and leftover soup filled me right up though; and, of course, I washed it all down with a nice big glass of milk.

I guess there’s not too much to report today – I was hungry, but this is one time I can’t blame this program!

Andrew

Meal Breakdown:

Breakfast: a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice.

Dinner: leftover soup, a half box of Kraft Dinner, some salad, and some carrots.

Estimate on Food Guide Servings:

Vegetables and Fruit: 5-6

Grains: 3-4

Milk and Alternatives: 1-2

Meat and Alternatives: 0

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Blog 7:

So it turns out that I think I have set the record for most days eating pizza and cereal in a row…at least that I know of…I ate cereal, pizza (the leftovers from yesterday) &pizza pops, and another two small bowls of cereal. This was what I ate over a very active day that had me up at 7am and just going to bed now at 2am. I had practice for a dance performance this week all day, a meeting, then an ice hockey and ball hockey game. The food I ate was, well, less than adequate. I could feel it in my legs mid-way through the ice hockey game–they were telling me that the food I have been eating today/lately simply does not allow me to perform at anywhere near peak performance. Whether its hockey (like in this case) or doing academics, this reality holds true. I have been working out for the last 4 or so weeks and can feel my body improving everyday–however, frankly, I think my diet is holding me back from achieving results that I am working hard for. I am holding up my end of the bargain to stay active, while keeping up on my academics and extra-curriculars in check, but my diet is not keeping up–in fact it is dragging me down simply because I cannot afford very healthy food. Even when I do opt to go healthy, I have to suffer later on…for now, I will keep working to find ways to eat as healthy as I can…but of course, the main focus is to eat period. Health with this budget is simply not consistently attainable.

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Blog 6:

I was not feeling good today at all…not something I experience very often. Luckily, it was a Saturday and I did not have anything too pressing that I couldnt stay in bed a bit longer to help myself recover. As such this affected my eating habits a bit as I did not eat as much but Im sure you can guess what I ate: thats right, cereal and pizza. Although, today I was lucky enough to add some sweet potato fries to the mix, which, for a ‘treat’ aren’t too bad for you (other than the fat content) and I was lucky when I was grocery shopping to find them on sale. I made sure today to eat less pizza then I normally would when I would cook frozen pizza and as a result tomorrow I have lunch already prepared. The downside (although no different from the past several days) is that I will once again only have two different things to eat today: cereal and pizza (the second bit of pizza will be pizza pops). I will have a bit of money left over so we’ll see if I can make it with just what I have outlined…

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Day 5:

Man, that pizza from last night did not seem to sit very well this morning. I hoping that does not mean I have come down with something. Anyways, one of the biggest things I have noticed today is the repetition for which my meals consist of…I mentioned previously that I have had some form of pizza everyday of this campaign so far (and for several days before then), but I have also had cereal every morning for even longer. While toast isn’t all that expensive, and eggs aren’t too bad either, cereal (Cherrios for me) is without a doubt the cheapest breakfast food that I eat–therefore it has become the only cereal that I eat unless I get lucky enough to find other cereals on sale. Im pretty lucky that I really enjoy Cherrios because I do not really have many other choices to have on a regular basis given that cereal is quick, easy to make, cheap and healthy (cherrios at least). I haven’t really noticed how repetitious my diet really is…in the past few days (and for a while before this campaign started) my meals have consisted of: pasta (some form of it, including KD), pizza, and cereal…I have eaten a few cookies (thanks to the Consul General lecture yesterday!) and a few little things here and there that my budget permitted or that my friends have given to me (mostly this) but the core items for my meals have been pizza, pasta and cereal. Where are the veggies? The fruits? Produce isn’t exactly overly expensive, but the fact that I can buy two or even three boxes of PC Mac&Cheese for every veggie or bunch of bananas I buy certainly does not incentivize good eating on a very tight budget…

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Sarah's Nutrition Blog

Sunday, March 14, 2010

So today I went to have my miniwheats and glass of milk but I got to the bottom of the bag (there are two bags in the box) of miniwheats, which meant that half of my bowl was crumbs so I had to get out a spoon to eat them.   Then for lunch I had more leftover KD and wieners (which still taste amazing) and a glass of V8 juice.  I then had a couple servings of carrots for an afternoon snack and for dinner I just had more leftover KD (I had a couple boxes already made in the fridge).  Then I had half a glass of V8 juice before going to bed.  It also now occurs to me that I have not been mentioning all the water I have been drinking because it doesn’t cost anything.  I usually take a bottle of water with me to school and fill it up at the water fountains and I usually have a couple glasses after I come home. So anyway, my total for the day was $7.29.  I had 5 servings of vegetables, 6 servings of grains, 1 serving of milk and 2 servings of meat.  So my total expenditure for this week was $38.62 out of the possible $52.50 thanks to all the free meals I received.

Sarah Baker

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Saturday, March 13, 2010

So this morning I woke up at 7:30am so that I could get ready and have breakfast before heading over to help with the School of Music auditions.  I had my regular bowl of miniwheats and my glass of milk.  When people help out with auditions we can eat as much of the catered food as we want at the auditions so I ended up eating a couple slices of the fruit bread, 3 quarter sandwiches with tuna, and about 3 servings of various fruits and vegetables.  I also had two glasses of apple juice.  All of this was free as I was volunteering.  Then when I came home in the late afternoon I had another serving of carrots for a snack.  For dinner I had the leftover KD and some more of the wieners.  My housemate had some friends over for dinner and they offered me a piece of their cake so I ate it.  It was delicious.  I also had another glass of milk with dinner.  So my total food expenditure for the day was $5.11 because I got free lunch.  My food servings that I got were 6 servings of vegetables and fruits, 7 servings of grains, 2 servings of milk and 2 servings of meat, one of which was fish.  I think this is the closest I’ve ever come to getting all my servings in and half of the food was free.

Sarah Baker

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Friday, March 12, 2010

This morning started off with a bowl of miniwheats and milk.  I came home for lunch and had a PB&J sandwich for lunch with a glass of V8 and a glass of milk.  I came home after hanging out at the music building and was hungry again so I had some carrots, about 2 servings.  For dinner I tried making one of my mom’s recipes, BBQ Weiners with KD.  The recipe is as follows,
Cut up 1 medium onion and sauté with 2 tbsp margarine.

Mix together with:

½ cup ketchup

¼ cup vinegar

1 ½ tbsp mustard

2-3 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

3-4 tbsp sugar

Take one package of hot dogs and slice each hot dog twice then place in a casserole dish and pour mixture over hot dogs.  Stick in the oven at 400 F for 20-30 min.

So, the ketchup and mustard I borrowed from my housemate because it was her month to buy it (next month is mine).  The vinegar cost approximately $0.10.  The Worcestershire Sauce was approximately $0.15 and I’m going to estimate the sugar at $0.15 as well.  The onion cost $0.48.  So the sauce altogether cost me $0.88.  The hot dogs cost me $4.00.  The box of KD was $0.99.  I had 2/3 of the KD and 1/3 of the hot dogs and sauce over the course of the night (I had a late night snack too).  I also had another glass of V8 before I went to bed.  So my total for the day was $7.84.  I had 6 servings of vegetables, 5 servings of grains, 2 servings of milk, and 3 servings of meat.

Sarah Baker

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Food for Thought – Day 4

So, yesterday I was feeling ill. Today I was ill.

For breakfast, I kept it light with some plain oatmeal, a peppermint tea with honey and 3 vitamin C tablets. About 75 cents.

Along with every other meal that I’ve accounted for thus far, I drank plenty of water. St. Catharines tap water is my best friend. (I often overdose on vitamins and water when my immune system is being challenged like it is). I also took 2 Acetaminophen tablets to keep my fever down. A no-name brand, but at a cost of $6 nonetheless. (75 tablets = $.08 per tablet x 2 = $.16 + 120 tablets vitamin C @ $7 = $.06 x 3 = $.18)

For lunch, a homemade smoothie with yogurt, mixed frozen fruit and orange juice. About $1

For dinner, canned chicken noodle soup. $1.75

I have no doubt that I will finish my bottle of vitamin C, as I take these everyday, however Tylenol is something that I rarely rarely injest. I can honestly say that I have never finished a bottle to myself before its expiry date. As far as I can see, I may only use two more tablets to relieve my fever symptoms and the rest of the bottle. I am going to try my very hardest not to get sick for a long, long time because, well, I just don’t have time for it. Therefore, remaining $5 or so will be regarded as a sunk cost in my budget.

TOTAL for Day 4 (with unforeseen and unfortunate sunk costs) = $8.50

Over budget and unhealthy,

R